President Obama may not be under par as he concludes his tour of the Hawaiian links, but he got what could be considered a hole-in-one gift from the Kappas and the Omegas.
Two prominent Black fraternities?Kappa Alpha Psi and Omega Psi Phi?have come together to forge 1911 United, a super PAC with the goal of raising more than $1 million to help President Obama get re-elected.
The? super PAC, taking its name from the fact that both fraternities celebrated their centennials last year, will focus most of its resources during the campaign in Colorado, Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, according to a recent news story on Politico.com.
Obama needs bolstering, said Sinclair Skinner, the committee?s treasurer.? ?And we want to use all the means possible to support him, including a super PAC. Black political participation is still evolving, and what we hope to do is get as many voters active in the process as early as possible,? he added.
Essential to this initiative, Skinner related, is to ?organize and deploy? Black voters, especially those first-time voters.? Obviously, social networking and phone banking will be key targets given the habits of young potential Black voters.
?We?re really going to focus on working with people directly,? said Skinner, a mechanical engineer.
The presidential election of 2012 will be the first time Super PACs or independent expenditure-only committees will go into effect.? They came into existence by virtue of the Supreme Court decision in 2010 that ruled in favor of Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission and SpeechNow.org v. the Federal Election Commission.????
Super PACs can spend unlimited sums of money supporting or opposing political candidates as long as they are not involved in the campaigns.
To date, huge sums of money from the Super PACs have been earmarked to promote Obama and to attack GOP candidates, including those run by former members of Obama?s staff.
1911 United will certainly assist Obama?s bid for office, and it joins with Priorities USA Action, run by two of Obama?s former White House aides, and one of the largest of those backing the president. It was reported that nearly all of its funds, more than $300,000, have been used in attacking Mitt Romney.
